Fairfield County

Bridgeport. Octagon house. Built in 1856 by clothier Nathan
Gould.
200 Barnum Avenue Grout walls; two stories with cupola. Tradition has it
that the home was built for P.T. Barnum, of circus fame.

The photographs at the left, below, was probably taken around 1960, based on the
vintage of the cars. The one on the right was obtained around 2009.
The two story porch on the left might be old, but whether it's original
is unclear. Without a roof over the second story porch it would not have lasted
long.

Danbury. Octagon house. Built in 1853.
This grand octagon house was presumably built by John T. Earle, a plumber and steamfitter, and remained in the Earle family until 1918. Carl Schmidt names the builder as Daniel Starr. The Atticks, a Lebanese family, were the next owners. They worked in a local hat factory and it remained in that family until 1980. It originally had 10 rooms, 4 were octagonal. An 1867 beers map shows it yet owned by J. Earl. Mrs Earl lived there in 1880.

Ann and Nick Abraham bought it in 1982 (she was Louis Attick’s daughter). It is located on Spring Street. A cupola and 4 chimneys top the roof. The concrete walls of the house, now an apartment building, are about 12 inches thick. Jose Nunez acquired the home in 2004 after the Abrahams’ deaths and it fell into disrepair. In 2015 the city planned to purchase and repair the octagon house. The Western Connecticut State University had a library exhibit on octagon houses in 2015.

Located at 21 Spring St., listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been sold by the family that held it for more than 75 years and it is getting a facelift.

After decades in the Attick and Abraham families, the eight-sided house was purchased as an investment this spring by Jose Nunez, a Danbury resident who has a travel business in New York. The selling price was $246,000, according to City Hall records.

For now, workmen are "putting everything the same as it was" on the old house, says Nunez. That includes patching leaks and putting in new woodwork on the Victorian-era verandas.

Nunez says he is not sure at this point if he'll rent it, sell it or live in it.

Spring Street was not even there when John Earle had the house built in 1853. For the first few years of its existence the house stood back from Elm Street.

Earle was a plumber and steamfitter at a time when Danbury hat firms were undergoing a boom and building the city's first big factories. Earle was probably busy and doing pretty well in 1853. All of those new factories were powered by steam engines with complicated piping and water supply systems which would have required the skills of someone like him.

The house is a reminder of a fad started by an author named Orson Fowler, who believed that eight-sided buildings were healthier and more affordable. The arrangement, he believed, created more space and provided more light. His 1848 book, "The Octagon House: A Home For All," was a best-seller of his day, and more than a thousand of the homes were built across the country.

Today they're rare. A list compiled by an architectural historian in 1983 found only 13 octagon homes in Connecticut.

Earle seems to have had the Spring Street house constructed straight from Fowler's book. The four rooms on each floor are eight-sided like the house, with fifteen-foot ceilings and odd pie-shaped closets, an innovation at that time. A spiral staircase through the house's center begins in the basement and rises all the way to a cupola on the roof that provides light to the interior and views of the city.

The home's thick walls are of concrete - Fowler called it "gravel wall construction" and believed it to be stronger and cheaper than wood or brick. The basement is at ground level. Three stories of wide verandas with light Victorian scrollwork posts surround the house.

The neighborhood that grew up around the Octagon House on Spring and Elm Streets was full of hatters who worked at nearby factories. In time, the local Yankees who built its first houses were replaced by wave after wave of immigrants who worked at the same hat and fur factories - Italians, Greeks, Slovaks, Lebanese and Syrians.

In 1925, one of those Lebanese families, hatters and brothers Albert and Louis Attick, acquired the Octagon House.

In 1980 Danbury businessman Nicholas Attick, Albert's son, lost the property to foreclosure.

But at the bank's auction in 1982, the house was purchased by his cousin, Ann Abraham and her husband Nick. She was Louis Attick's daughter and had grown up next door.

"My father and mother both wanted to keep it in the family," says Fred Abraham, their son. "We didn't know if it would be torn down or what would happen to it."

The couple repaired and did some renovations to the historic building that year.

"The place meant a lot to both my parents," says Abraham. But during the last couple of years the house needed more and more work, and the decision was made last year to put it on the market. "It was a real heartbreaker for us to let it go," says Abraham.

Ann Abraham died of lung cancer on June 29. On trips to the hospital for chemotherapy, Fred Abraham says, they would pass through Spring Street to see the progress being made by Nunez' crew.

"My mother was very encouraged," her son says. "She was happy."

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1867

As of summer, 2013, the house is losing its battle with foreclosures, vandals, vagrants, itinerants,
and perhaps drug users. Empty, and unmonitored, the house is now being trashed by these elements.
Failing the appearance of new owners willing to reverse the slide, the house is likely doomed.

Greenwich.
In 1857 Solomon Gansey built his home with self-designed plans. It stood on Milbank Avenue between East Elm and Lincoln Avenue. Gansey's original plans showed an additional story but when it was constructed a cupola replaced the 3rd story due to money constraints. The house had full porch and clapboard siding with cornice brackets. The tall cupola sat on a flat roof with a balustrade. A balustrade also encircled the 2nd floor of the porch. In 1859 it was sold it to Brush Knapp, a wealthy Greenwich grocer. In 1885 Mary Waring Mead bought it from Knapp. (An interesting 1893 news article tells of the arrest of several volunteer firemen who set fires for the fun of putting them out. One of the buildings they ignited was the barn on Miss Waring's octagon property.)

Later George E. Carmichael opened his college preparatory school, Brunswick School, in the octagon house. He had 14 boys as his first students. By 1905 the Millbank hospital bought the land and razed the house.

Greenwich.
A second octagon house stood in Greenwich, located at 513 Steamboat Road.
It was built in the late 1850's by John Geike Wellstood, a bank-note engraver from New York. He used to commute every day to NYC. It was a frame house with mansard roof. Andrew Spence, Wellstood's brother-in-law was the architect.
In 1939, Thomas and Margaret Hanson owned the house. A field data sketch seems to show two bay windows and a small porch on front wall. The house was owned by Fred Hansen in the 1950's, and demolished in 1960. A 1939 data report shows it clearly defined as an octagon house. No known photos exist.

Greenwich Octagon house. Built in 1856 or before. Needs more information. Built before the
Gansey house on Millbank and the desciption does not fit the house on Steamboat Road.

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: August, 2014.

Greenwich a.k.a. Riverville. Octagon schoolhouse.
The school year was only 6 months long! The first official Glenville School was called the Inkwell and erected in 1857.
It was stucco with a south-facing porch.

Known as the Riversville Octagonal School, it was built on Riversville Road, north of Sherwood Avenue. In the late 1800's overcrowding caused classes to be scattered all over town to accommodate students. It was even necessary to rent additional classroom space in private homes in the community, indicating the need for a much larger school structure. In 1921 the original Glenville School was built on Riversville Road. On November 18th, over 600 persons attended the opening of this new Glenville School.
On April 28, 1975 the current Glenville School opened in its new location on Riversville Road, an open space facility designed to accomodate new learning opportunities for students of the Glenville area.

Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: December, 2015.

Norwalk
An octagon house was erected between 1851 and 1858 in South Norwalk, most likely by Joseph H Raymond Jr, a mason. It stood on Flax Hill Road, just west of the intersection of Elm Grove Avenue. From 1895-1900 his widow Harriet Raymond whom Jos. married in 1847 resided there. It was then 11 Elm Grove Rd. It was struck by lightning Aug 13 1920 and razed sometime after that. From the Evening Sentinel," aka South Norwalk Sentinel.”The Raymond family home for 50 yrs. In 1920 it had been rented and the families of Mrs. Margaret Miller and her daughter, Mrs. Florence Stokes have been living there." "The house which was of cement construction, fell outward ... no one was injured." 1875 birdseye map shows it on West St at Lowe. Source Norwalk Public Library History room Paul Keroack, archive manager

Hartford County

East Hartford. Octagon house. Built 1858 for the Curtis family.
Located at 159 Naubuc Avenue. Owned by the Hollister family since 1867, as
of 1997 it was owned by Allen Hollister. The house currently has vinyl
siding, but likely had clapboard siding originally.

Hartford. Octagon house. Probably built in the 1880s or before.
Located on South QUaker Lane, Near New Britain Avenue. Nothing else known.
Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: October, 2009.

New Britain
An 1875 birdseye shows an octagon house on School Street at 33 Prospect. In 1869 it was owned by Daniel Mallory Rogers.(D.M.) It isnt known if he built it though he came to New Britain in 1868 His company D. M. Rogers made sashes and doors and was in business for over 100 yrs.

Following his death in 1904, his daughters continued to live in the house. His son Daniel O. took over the business. The address of the octagon house then was 37 Prospect. By the time of the 1914 city directory, the address is gone so the house may have been razed. It is definitely gone on the 1929 Sanborn map.

Sanborn map shows it surrounded by schools but with a verandah/porches on 3 front walls. Some info from Patricia C. Watson New Britain Public Library.

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1895

1902

1909

1869

1875

1884

Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: July, 2016.

Litchfield County

New Milford. Round building. Built in or before 1906.
Located on Ashpetuck Avenue.
A segment of an 1906
map
of New Milford shows the building at the center of the image.
Source: R. Kline
Entered: July, 2002.

Town of Washington.
This octagon house was built for Treat Nettleton between 1850 & 1865. It was also constructed by Simeon Calhoun. It closely resembled the Solley house even to the bay window and flat roof with chimney but the window cornices were fancier and the upper windowframes did not extend into the cornice. It is now sided with asbestos shingles.. The house was moved from its original site on Nettleton Hollow Rd. and is now located at 216 Nettleton Hollow Rd. In 2009 it was advertised for sale. Nettleton Dorr House Nettleton Hollow Rd., off CT47.
Photos attached show its 1996 remodeling after being moved.

The Solley House is one of 2 octagons in Washington built by Simeon H. Calhoun after the Civil War. (He also built the one above for Treat Nettleton.) The clapboard structure was part of the Solley family farm for many years. The Hollister Family were the next owners; whose farm was known as Hollicraft and the barn bore that name. The grounds are often referred to as Hollicroft.

H. B. Hanson was next owner and he in turn sold it to the Solleys in 1940 who ran it as a dairy farm. Two wings have been added through the years to the home and it now features an enclosed porch.
It had 11 rooms but looks like it had been gutted and modernized. Any decorative elements have been removed from the exterior although it has a bay window directly left of the front entrance. There is a chimney in the center of the almost flat roof.

Winsted. Octagon house. Built in the 1860s by Henry M. Sweet,
of Sweet Brothers, a carpenter and builder. Sweet lived at
68 Wetmore Avenue.. Razed in 1899.
Located on Hinsdale Avenue, previously Nigger Road, between Elm and Oak Streets.

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1874

The postcard image above is from about 1910, and based on a photograph by
Frank Demars.

Middlesex County

Cromwell. Octagon house. Located at Saint Peter's Hall, at
the Holy Apolstles College and Seminary, 33 Prospect Road. Apparently the
original structure has been highly modified, and it's difficult to see without
closer inspection that it is basically an octagon house.

East Hampton. Octagon house. The Deming Sexton House. Built in
1862. Located at 6 Middletown Avenue ( Route 16 ). Stucco. Floor area 1,500
square feet. Porch on four sides of the first floor, and above the entrance
on the second floor. The basement is mostly exposed, and has windows, so
the house effectively has three stories.

East Hampton. Octagon house. Built in 1855 for Henry S.
Smith, son of the local town clerk, Nathaniel C. Smith. Located on
Bevin Boulevard, a dead end street. The house has 15-inch concrete walls.
The house has been in the Clark family since around 1900, and is currently
(as of 1997) owned by Newton and Helen Clark.

East Hampton. Cobalt Area. The
William T. Tibbals House built 1857/1873 on 11 Old Middletown Road 6. with wood shingles on granite foundation. Tibbals bought the site in 1857 and began immediate building of the home. He was an invalid last 16 years of his life and left the house to his son.

Portland.
Located at 26 Marlboro Street - now 70 Marlboro Street. Built in 1853.
The Joseph Williams house stands beside the Stancliff house and apparently was the first one built. It’s also Italianate styling with a cupola, decorated with brackets. Also originally brownstone but stuccoed over at some point. Williams, a grocer, was the brother-in-law to Mr. Stancliff in 1853. In 1859 the home was owned by C H Hall.
Both men were related to Portland's first settler. This house also has a modern porch—the original verandah that covered 3 walls was extant as of 1974. (see photo 1974) Both octagons have fire escapes. Currently it's a 4-family apartment dwelling. Williams, a grocer, was Gilbert Stancliff's brother-in-law. He bought the 3/4-acre lot in 1853. It's since been sold several times. In the mid-20th century, the house was converted to an apartment building and remains so.

Portland.
Located at 28 Marlboro Street - now 78 Marlboro Street. Built in 1855.
Gilbert Stancliff, superintendent at the Portland brownstone quarries, built his octagon house of quarried brownstone. The window sills retain this original stone. The brackets suggest Italianate styling and it has a basic porch on the front wall. The mullioned windows are most likely original. In recent years stucco was added to the exterior. This covers the shadow of the original verandah. The octagon stands beside the Joseph Williams Octagon House, which is almost its twin.

St. Mary's Church bought the Stancliff property in 1929 and installed crucifixes on the roofs of the rear wing and cupola.

Old Saybrook.
Located at 56 Main Street (Route 1).
The Ingham octagon house built in 1890, is located on Route 1 and is not a symmetrical octagon. Four sides are much shorter than the other four. Author Barbara J Maynard lists it as built by Horace Archer. There are gables on just 3 of the 4 wider roof sections. The wide cornice, which incorporates part of the 2nd floor porch, has paired brackets. The first floor porch is square with decorative pillars. Robert Burns of the Burns & Young store resided here for many years then daughter Mary, postmistress, lived here. Stories it was a Sears house is most likely wrong since they didn’t offer kit houses until 1906.

Extensively remodeled, it was recently owned by Dr. David Sliva, a dentist whose offices are there.

New Haven County

Ansonia. Perhaps a round church. Built in or before 1921.
Located on North Clift and North State Streets. Multiple story.
Onion shaped cupola.
There is a larger and smaller round building on the same site.
A segment of an 1921
map
of Ansonia shows the building at the center of the image.

Apparently gones as of April, 2009.

Source: R. Kline
Entered: July, 2002.

Guilford. The Leete-Griswold house. Built in 1856 by Edwin A. Leete.
Located at 21 Petticoat Lane, previously 84 Fair Street,
Two story. Cupola. Wood construction.
Cedar siding added in 1930, and removed in 1985, during a renovation, taking the exterior back
to the original vertical clapboards.
There is also an octagon garage, with window placements that mimic the house.
Current owners are Jeffry Beeman and Jamie Bollinger.

GPS coordinates: 41.286923 -72.685602

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1938 - post hurricane damage.

July, 1962

2013

c1975

1889

1868

1889

2016

The house was substantially renovated in 1985 by 25 year old Jami Bollinger
and 27 year old Jeffery Beeman, who had a yen for restoration projects.
Many years of random modifications were undone, including the removal
of some ugly external wooden shingles that were probably added in the 1930s,
and some ceiling modifications that hid the cupola.

Meriden. Octagon house.
30 Franklin St. Historical information says built in 1899 by grocer James McKiernan. But I have found the house as early as 1868 on Beers map and owner then was A.F Camp - Camp was a prominent name in that area at the time. McKiernan (whose family owned it the longest) most likely was the 2nd owner - purchasing it from Camp.
The cement-covered brownstone had a mansard roof with gabled windows by 1875, which was fashionable in that decade. (Perhaps McKiernans contribution) The 3-story home had dormers on four sides of the attic/third floor. There is a significant addition to the house on one side. In 1951 the McKiernan family sold it to the Disabled War Veterans. It was demolished in 1970 to make room for a new highway.

New Haven.
Charnley House. Octagon house (gone). Was located on northwest corner of Temple and Grove. Built in 1853.
Henry Austin built this octagon house. It became known as the William S. Charnley house for a later owner, whose family lived in the stone house for 30 years. The 1st. floor windows had elaborate cornices and there was a squared bay window. The 2nd floor windows were all arched. It had a low, bracketed cupola and 4 chimneys. St. Mary’s parish used it as a clergy house for 20 years. It was stone or cement etched to resemble stone. Yale University tore it down in 1913 to build Yale University Vernon Hall.

New Haven. Built in 1875 to 1877.
A one and a half story octagon with a mansard roof stands on Hallock St. History is sketchy but it is thought it was erected by a real estate spectator named Massen Clark. A few years ago the Connecticut Preservation Fund offered assistance for anyone wanting to rehabilitate the house. The home's previous owner had defaulted on a loan, and the house sat empty for years. Recently it was refurbished. The house has a high, red brick basement, which makes the entrance almost on the second floor. Gables pierce the roof on alternate sides. The porch of this quaint octagon house is of modern design.

New Have Octagon house. Located at George and York Streets. Needs verification.

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1879

Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: April, 2015.

Wallingford. Octagon house. Built in 1857.
Located at 37 New Place Street, in the borough of Yalesville.
Owned in 1868 by G. I. Mix. This 2 story concrete house has a central chimney and double paired windows with a utilitarian front porch over a stoop. Bracketed eaves and cupola. Still a single family home it was owned in 2002 by Wendy Mackie and Brenda Halvorson.

Wallingford. Octagon house. Built in 1856.
An 1868 map shows this home owned by I. Bradford. It is a 2-story concrete construction with cupola and stands in the borough of Yalesville. The front entrance has sidelights but no porch remains. The frieze level has attic vents on each wall. This octagon is one of two built in Yalesville around 1855-60 on the same block.

Wallingford. Octagon house.
A large octagon wing still stands on Christian and Elm St.
The cupola it once had is gone and only 3 walls are now connecting to the complex of buildings circa 1870 Italianate.

The Curtis House (now known as the Sally Hart Lodge) on the Choate Rosemary Hall campus was built c.1850 to resemble Abbottsford (Walter Scott’s home) by Roderick Curtis (and wife Mary) and subsequently purchased for the school by Judge William Choate in 1906. It served as the headmaster’s home until 1996 when it was then totally renovated and converted to what is now: the alumni house and inn. The 1850 dates suggests Curtis had more than a passing familiarity with the octagon fad of that time.

Left click on the images below for larger versions.

1881

Source: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: March, 2014.
Updated: May, 2015

West Haven. Octagon house. Gove Palace.

Left click on the image below for a larger version.

Sources: Ellen Puerzer.
Entered: July, 2009.

New London County

Mystic.
It's been said Albert Stark built the house in 1850.Located at 8 West Mystic Avenue. After he died, his wife resided there. An 1880s stereoscope of the house identifies it as that of Capt. Isaac Washington. The street was once dubbed Skipper Lane due to the preponderance of ship's captains residing along that street. The stucco house had a porch encircling most of the first floor.
The original house was badly damaged in the 1938 hurricane and the depression-era owners couldn't afford an accurate restoration. In 2008 new owners brought it back closer to its original appearance except for the balustrade on the second floor porch deck.
Recently owned by Cathy Cook. Currently contains an in-law apartment, and nine other rooms. Concrete construction. Cupola. A segment of an 1879 map of Mystic shows the house just to the left of Mystic Avenue, near the top of the image.

Windham County

Willimantic.
An impressive octagon landmark once stood in the town of Willimantic. A local carpenter named Charles Beckwith built it in Willimantic's prosperous nineteenth century Hill District. The roof formed 4 gambrel-shaped gables. There was a course of decorative cedar shingles at the junction of the third floor and the gabled story. A 1909 map shows it with a first floor verandah. By the time of the photo blow the porch had been replaced with a simple gabled overhang. This grand 4-story-plus-cupola structure had the entrance up a flight of stairs to the second floor. It was demolished in the late 1930's but a photo does exist.